Seminar: February 16, 2017

The PLA Seminar

Every February the Piedmont Landscape Association hosts an annual seminar. This event strives to bring gardening enthusiasts and landscape professionals together in an educational setting.

Please note The Piedmont Landscape Association will no longer provide registration by mail. Due to the high volume of participants and the limited volunteer capacity of our organization, everyone will be directed to register through the Paramount Theater. Registration may be taken over the phone (434-979-1333) or online at www.theparamount.net.You can also reach the Paramount’s registration webpage through the link in the green registration box.

Items to Note:

Continental breakfast is provided during morning registration and refreshments are provided during breaks.

Parking vouchers for both parking garages can be bought in addition to the ticket(s) from the Paramount Theater. Vouchers will also be for sale during the event.

Book sales and trade exhibits will be available throughout the seminar.

Exhibitors interested in renting a display table for a business or organization may contact James Walker at (434) 971-3020.

Continuing Education Credits are available for VSLA and VSLD. ISA, and ASLA credits are currently pending. More information will be provided at the seminar.

For general questions or comments about the upcoming seminar, please contact Tracy Tanner Bond at Ttannerbond@gmail.com.

All ticket sales arefinal!

Registration is open now through the event date. “Early Bird” discounts run through 1/13/2017 followed by “Advance” sales starting 1/14/17 through 2/3/17. Afterwards, all other dates will be charged full admission rates.

Dr. Allan Armitage is well known as a writer, speaker and researcher throughout the world. Born and raised in Canada, he lived in Quebec and Ontario, then in East Lansing, Michigan and Athens, Georgia. He has worked with landscape plants and greenhouse crops in the North and South, and travels from coast to coast and all parts in between sharing his passion for plants. He holds his B.Sc. from McGill University in Montreal, otherwise known as The Harvard of the North, his M.Sc. from University of Guelph and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

His career has taken him all over the world, lecturing throughout United States and Canada, as well as many countries in Europe, South America, New Zealand and Australia. His knowledge has allowed him to write 14 books, countless academic papers and hundreds of articles for professionals and lay people alike. He has been honored for his achievements throughout he country - the respect from his colleagues is most impressive. Armitage has received numerous awards from nursery trade groups and horticultural organizations, including the Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America. He has been recognized as one of the best teachers in the nation when he received the distinguished National Educator Award from the American Horticultural Society. He has written a monthly column for the national greenhouse publication, “Greenhouse Grower”, over 30 years and has not repeated one yet. To view always entertaining, informative, and sometimes instructional short videos, visit his You Tube channel.

When not in the garden, Allan enjoys- squash, tennis, reading, guitar and yes, even dancing.

Lecture (Morning): Horticulture Through One Man's Eyes

Dr. Armitage will talk about what he has learned about people in the industry, what he sees happening around us and some general thoughts. He will also demo his App and explain how the portability and possibilities are quite unique, helpful and FREE!

Lecture (Afternoon):Dr. A's Best Piedmont Plant Picks

Dr. Armitage will talk about some of the finest perennials and annuals for gardeners, designers, landscapers and garden centers. In his own style, he will bring you up to date with the good, the bad and the ugly. Sit back, get your pencil sharpened and learn about some great plants for the garden.

Nancy Ross Hugo

Nancy Ross Hugo has had the privilege of living among trees, writing about trees, and learning about trees for most of her life. As garden columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch , education manager at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, and writer for publications including Horticulture, Fine Gardening, and American Forests, she has been combining her love of the outdoors with her love of the written word for almost 40 years. She is the author of five books, including Seeing Trees and Trees Up Close, and she led the initiative to locate and celebrate Virginia’s oldest, most historic, and most interesting trees, a four-year project that resulted in the publication of Remarkable Trees of Virginia, a book that has been called “a spectacular tribute Virginia’s trees.” Through her writing and lectures, Nancy describes how to view trees in ways that reveal secrets about how evolved and why they are engineered the way they are. She argues that looking carefully at seeds, catkins, flowers, resting buds, emerging leaves, and other small tree phenomena not only provides insight into tree biology but also uncovers a whole new universe of tree beauty.

Her love of trees has led her to tree habitats all over the world, but her real passion is celebrating the common wildflowers, weeds, trees and everyday plants that are often overlooked in ordinary backyards. Nancy loves reading old natural history books, writing new ones, and exploring the creative process through flower arranging and nature journaling. Through nature journaling and blogging about the “windowsill arrangements” she creates every day, she says she keeps her creative muscles exercised, her thoughts straight, and her eyes open to all things wild and wonderful. In 2011, Nancy began a blog on which she posts a photo of a small flower arrangement or just a “conglomeration of natural materials” every day. Assembled on the windowsill, these simple displays celebrate the seasons and chronicle Nancy’s love affair with local wildflowers, weeds and garden flowers as well as her discovery of new and exciting ways to display them. They also demonstrate why practicing this easy art form is so valuable as a form of nature journaling and rewarding as a personal creative practice. Over 800 arrangements like these can be found at windowsillarranging.blogspot.com

She currently directs Flower Camp, an outdoor center in central Virginia, and travels the country speaking on the two topics closest to her heart: observing trees carefully and celebrating the seasons through daily, simple flower arranging.

In Trees Up Close, Nancy Ross Hugo describes the joy of discovering unfamiliar features of familiar trees. She explains how carefully observing seeds, catkins, flowers, resting buds, emerging leaves, and other small phenomena of ordinary backyard and roadside trees can provide insight into tree biology and reveal a whole new universe of tree beauty. From the pollination droplets of the ginkgo to the sticky surfaces of female walnut flowers, Hugo argues that these intimate tree details are as exciting to watch and worthy of viewing as roses or peonies, and that by becoming more familiar with them, observers can better appreciate both the genius of tree engineering and the importance of trees in the landscape. With images by fine art photographer Robert Llewellyn, Hugo shares strategies to help observers see more, profiles several common species, and illustrates why some species, including American beech, tulip poplar, and redbud make particularly fine subjects for viewing. She also shares what decades planting and observing trees has taught her about which trees make the best landscape investments and the importance of planting long-lived, legacy trees.

Peggy M. Singlemann

Peggy M. Singlemann, Maymont Director of Horticulture, has designed, planted and maintained historic and specialty gardens at the 100-acre estate for more than 30 years, and she has served as a host of Richmond’s monthly gardening show, “Virginia Home Grown,” on PBS WCVE, Your Community Idea Station, since 2013. The gardens at Maymont under her care include the formal Italian Garden, a four-acre Japanese Garden, Marie’s Butterfly Trail, Jack’s Vegetable Garden, The Robin’s Nature and Visitor Center native plant landscape, numerous annual and perennial borders, and an award-winning arboretum that encompasses Maymont’s 100 acres.

Singlemann lectures throughout the mid-Atlantic region and has been published in local and national periodicals such “American Nurseryman,” “Horticulture,” and “Virginia Gardener,” and she writes blog posts for Maymont and “Virginia Home Grown.” She is a member of the Central Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, the International Society of Arboriculture, the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, the Virginia Society of Landscape Designers, the Virginia Native Plant Society, and the Southern Garden History Society. Singlemann was named Professional of the Year in 2016 by the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, and she has been recognized by the Central Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association with an annual scholarship named in her honor. She has judged the Christmas Decorations at Colonial Williamsburg, and she is a past board member of the Virginia Urban Forestry Council and the Central Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association.

Singlemann graduated from the State University of New York at Cobleskill with a degree in Horticulture, and she is a Certified Horticulturist through the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, a Certified Landscape Designer through the Virginia Society of Landscape Designers, and a Certified Arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture. She earned her North American Certificate in Horticulture through the American Public Garden Association, of which she is a member.

Lecture (Afternoon):Native Shrubs, the Middle Layer

Discover the plants that soften the woodland edge while providing seasonal color. Shrubs join the upper layer of the tree canopy to the ground layer in the garden. Growing in full sun or shade the shrubs will enhance the textures in a garden and provide habitat to liven the landscape.